Fire and Rain [🗸]

11. chaos in the idle town

thanks for making me whole, saturn <3 ily <3

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tw: some homophobia !

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DREAD.

It's the subtle feeling that fills my chest as we drive into Greenport. It's not a long drive to start with— just under two hours—but it feels quicker. The drive is always shorter when you're not exactly thrilled about Destination B.

I glance out of the window, the pale sky staring back at me. I knew we'd end up back here at some point. The way we planned our route meant we'd be stopping in Greenport for a couple of days before heading onwards to Providence.

So, of course I knew that throughout the entirety of our stay in Manhattan, but I pushed it to the back of my mind and into a deep crevice and ignored it for most of the trip.

Josiah adjusts the volume of the music. The car's relatively silent. Sadie's sketching something on her iPad, Azul's asleep, Elliot is going through his phone with a slight grin—most likely going through the dumbass photos we took throughout the trip—and Zahra's to my right, gaze on the ceiling. She let me have the window seat.

My eyes flicker out of the window again. I don't hate Greenport. It's still my home, the place where I grew up, the place where the Greenport Gang created memories and braved through everything together.

It's strange, really. Everything's sweet nostalgia and discomfort at the same time. Although, the dread I'm feeling can definitely be credited to the amount of missed calls I got from Mom. By any indication, by the time I walk into the house tonight, I'll be in deep shit. 

We eventually drop people off. In fact, Josiah drops everyone else at their places first, looping around my block of the neighborhood multiple times. When he drops people off, he makes sure to remind everyone of the plan once more.

I'm surprised he hasn't created a field trip syllabus yet.

Zahra says exactly this as Josiah drops her off, and he raises his middle finger at her. 

She was the last stop before we got around to my street. Now we're just circling the area. Josiah's stalling, I know he is.

"Jo," I say.

"Lu," he glances through the rearview mirror to meet my eyes.

"You're stalling," I say.

He offers me a half grin with a slight shrug. "Waiting for you to give me the signal. You could just stay over at my place. My parents wouldn't mind."

I know they wouldn't mind. The Wrights are like that. If I were to come over to their place right now, they would order whatever takeout I wanted, and allow me to stay over for as long as I wanted to.

It's tempting, I'll give him that. But, "I already missed a ton of my Mom's calls. I think I should get home before she calls 911."

"Alright," Josiah says, finally pulling in front of my driveway. "But you know, if you need me," he glances through the rearview mirror, "I got you. One call and I'm there."